In a major setback to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and the BJP, few months ahead of Assembly elections, the Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the Patna High Court’s decision that scrapped the state government’s decision to increase the quota for backward classes from 50 per cent to 65 per cent.
The Supreme Court listed the matter in September for hearing Bihar Government’s plea challenging Patna High Court order setting aside increase in reservation for Backward Classes, SC & ST from 50 per cent to 65 in public employment and admission to educational institutions.
Appearing for the Bihar Government, Senior Advocate Shyam Divan pressed for a stay of the high court order and said the Supreme Court passed an interim order in a similar case related to Chhattisgarh. But CJI Chandrachud pointed out that the high court had found that already 68 per cent of the civil services consist of reserved candidates.
The High Court invalidated Bihar government’s amendment Acts of 2023, which aimed to raise reservation quotas from 50 per cent to 65 per cent for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs), and Economically Backward Classes (EBCs). This adjustment included allocations of 20 per cent for SCs, 2 per cent for STs, 25 per cent for EBCs, and 18 per cent for OBCs.
The Nitish Kumar government’s decision to hike the reservation in Bihar to 65 per cent was challenged by one Gaurav Kumar in the Patna High Court. The petitioner in the Patna HC had argued that according to the Supreme Court’s judgment, reservation cannot exceed 50 per cent.
The High Court, in an 87-page order dated June 20, declared these amendments unconstitutional, stating they violated the fundamental Right to Equality. The court ruled The Bihar Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services (Amendment) Act, 2023, and The Bihar (In Admission in Educational Institutions) Reservation (Amendment) Act, 2023 as unconstitutional, violating Articles 14, 15, and 16.
The government’s amendments had followed a caste survey, which put the percentage of Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) at a staggering 63 per cent of the state’s total population, while the SCs and STs were stated to have accounted for more than 21 per cent.
The exercise was undertaken by the Bihar government after the Centre expressed its inability to carry out a fresh headcount of castes other than the SCs and STs, which was last held as part of the 1931 Census.